It’s been a bit of a roller coaster ride for the Parklane boys as of late. But after Tuesday night, the team is definitely on the rise following a 38-37 road win over Jackson Prep.
“It was a great win for us. It is definitely a hard place to play in Jackson,” Parklane head coach Josh Bass said. “We had our hands full for sure and I was just really proud of our guys, our effort was tremendous.”
Once again, the Pioneers were led in scoring by Jacob Gazzo who had 25 points, scoring in a variety of ways from field goals to free throws to makes from beyond the 3-point arc, a part of his game that he has been working to incorporate more of recently.
“Being able to bring him out to the perimeter now and have him knock down a 3-point shot is a big deal and it presents our opponents a big hurdle to overcome,” Bass said.
Led by a 12 first-quarter points from Gazzo, the Pioneers got off to a solid start to open the game. However the wheels came off in the second as they were limited to just two points.
“They (Jackson Prep) are a really strong defensive team, as are we so there is a lot of defensive battling in the game,” Bass said. “We just couldn’t put together much offense in the second quarter. Thank goodness we scored some points in the first quarter.”
And while Gazzo had strong contributions in both the third and fourth quarters, other Pioneers stepped up their games as well.
A 3-pointer from Whit Price and a basket from Ezra Pattie in the third along with makes from Hastings Carruth and Bert Passman in the fourth provided just enough offense for Parklane.
In addition to the increased offense, the Pioneer defense made necessary adjustments to slow down the Patriot attack in the second half limiting them to single digits in scoring in final two quarters.
PA girls fall hard to Prep
After getting off to a solid start early on, the Parklane girls got out of rhythm and could not recover, Tuesday, falling at Jackson Prep 62-26.
“Jackson Prep girls are a great team, they are all-around a great team,” said Bass who also coaches the PA girls. “We had a great plan to stop certain people and we did that pretty well in the first few minutes of the game. But when the people we did not plan for started shooting well from the outside and knocking shots down, it hurt us.”
The Pioneers had no answer for the Patriots perimeter shooting. Prep nailed nine 3-pointers in the game compared to just three for Parklane.
The solid play for Parklane came early on.
Behind five points from Gigi Lindsey and four from Haven Hollis, the visitors pulled within nine at 19-10 at the end of the first quarter.
Then the scoring woes haunted the Pioneers as they produced only three points in the second quarter while the Patriot attack continued thrived with another 23 points putting Parklane in a deep hole.
Despite the deficit, the Pioneers continued to fight but they could not get over their earlier struggles in the contest.
Lindsey led Parklane with eight points, while Liberty Gillihan had seven.
